STATUS AND DEVELOPMENT OF OPERATIONAL METEOSAT WIND PRODUCTS

The Operational Meteosat Meteorological Products are produced by the MPEF, a facility in the Meteosat Ground Segment developed and operated by EUMETSAT under the Meteosat Transition Programme (MTP). The most important MPEF products are the wind products, derived from all three Meteosat channels. The current operational wind products are the Cloud Motion Winds, derived from 5 km resolution imagery in all three Meteosat channels, the High Resolution Visible winds, derived from full (2.5km) resolution visible images and Clear Sky Water Vapour Winds, derived from 5 km WV imagery in cloud free areas. The current status and quality of these wind products is presented. The planned development of the wind products from the current Meteosat MTP satellite is driven by the meteorological community requirements for higher spatial and temporal coverage, including winds in cloud-free areas. These needs will be satisfied by a number of developments: more frequent wind distribution, BUFR distribution of winds with quality information, increased HRV coverage through improved tracer selection techniques, high resolution winds from the Water Vapour channel. These developments and their relationship to the development towards the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) products are described and discussed in detail. 1